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Lamictal side effects.
Mon, 02/27/2006 - 20:49Topic: Medication Issues
Hi,
I am really in trouble regarding the medicine. I took Depakote ER for my generalized seizures and been controled by it for about 5 years. In March 2004 I had a child who was born with Fetal Valproate Syndrome-syndrome caused by Depakote. I can't describe to you how painful it is to realize how much damage I did to my own son! It took me about 6 months to find out what was wrong with him because all doctors who saw him couldn't help me. Right now, thank God, he is a very active, happy boy, running and destroying everything around:)). But he underwent two surgeries and maybe one more is coming.
Now, we decided to try to have another child and I started to change medication on something safer. There is no safe medication but new generation AEDs sound more promising. At first, doctor put me on Keppra 500mg twice a day. On the fourth day after completely stop taking Depakote and being only on Keppra I had a seizure, first in 5 years. I scared my older son who is 11 years old now a lot. He helped me during my seizure because my husband was at work at that time. My youngest was OK, he didn't understand anything. Doctor increased my dosage to 2000mg a day. But my mood is very affected by it. I am very snappy, angry and tired all the time. Plus there is not enough data regarding pregnancy and Keppra. After talking to my doctor again we decided to switch to Lamictal. There is some data regarding pregnancy on this medication. It's my second week on Keppra 2000mg and Lamictal 50 gr. It's going to take overall 8 weeks to do a complete swith. The dosage of Lamictal at the end will be 400 mg. But since yesterday, I started to have funny taste when I eat-everything tastes bitter. Plus I don't want to eat at all, except bread. I started to wonder, can it be an effect of Lamictal and will it go away? I am lost completely. Did anyone experience anything like that and what did you do? Sorry for such a long blog! Thank you very much for any response!
Natalya.
Comments
Re: Re: Lamictal side effects.
Submitted by natalya on Tue, 2006-03-21 - 10:01
Sonia,
Thanks for sharing your story with me!I need to go for the second opinion two but I have no idea where? This doctor is well known throughout the doctor's community and I got the recommendation to see him specifically. Now I don't know where else to go!
I had to stop taking Lamictal! When I started week 5 on Lamictal I had to take 2000 Keppra and 200 Lamictal(instead of 100). One hour after I took it I started to feel myself just awful! Nausea very close to vomiting, stomach pain and unbelievably BITTER taste even on condensed milk! Everything tested just awful! I had a horrible night and as soon as the office opened next morning I called. I asked the nurse if I can talk to the doctor directly and maybe I need to decrease Keppra because it's seem like too much medicine for me! She called me back only at 4 p.m! I had to skip the morning dosage(because nausea was very strong) and wait the whole day hoping that I will talk to a doctor! She told me to keep the Keppra dosage the same and decrease Lamictal to 150. Nobody explained me why I have this bitter taste, why am I so nauseous? I was mad! I stopped taking Lamictal all at once. I am still on Keppra and decided when I am going to be ready for pregnancy I will try to be med-free for at least the first trimester. And then, if I need to, I can always go back on the medicine. I feel betrayed by my doctor, he was to busy for me! Now I have to make decisions myself!
Thanks for your help,
Natalya.
Re: Re: Re: Lamictal side effects.
Submitted by Colina on Tue, 2006-03-21 - 10:58
Hi Natalya. Sounds like you're having a horrible time. Some doctors can be very thoughtless. Remember though we must take charge, after all they are working for us.I'm also on lamictal and keppra. It has been working great for me.When I started the keppra I too was extremely nauseous but my doc warned me of that and said to call if it did'nt stop after a couple of weeks. It has stopped and I feel much better. Also I don't eat with my meds and apparently you should always take the keppra the same way everytime, so if it's time to take them and I'm hungry I wait to eat for about an hour. Lamictal? Of all the many aeds I have been through, lamictal has been the kindest( for lack of a better word) to me, very awful when one sticks to my tongue though. I use 1% milk, maybe condensed is too thick. Anyway I don't know what type of seizures you have but my epilotologist told me if you stop meds suddenly you may go into status. I was'nt diagnosed yet when I had my three children so I was'nt on meds. Beleive me though I wish I would have been with my second pregnancy, never had so many seizures in my life.Fortunatly not grand mal, though I guess I would have been diagnosed sooner if they were. Hope this helps. Give it a try(not eating with meds) maybe it will work for you. Have a good day and smiles to you. Linda
Re: Lamictal side effects.
Submitted by heathersmom on Tue, 2006-03-21 - 00:33
My daughter has had seizures since she was 10. She is now 25. In 2003 she was changed from Tegratol to Lamictal. About 4 months after she started on the Lamictal she started having episode of wabbliness, almost to the point where she resembled an MS patient. She would get so bad at times she would need a cane to keep from staggering and falling. Her head would spin, feel like a tight band was around it, see color spot, talk and sound as if she were intoxicated. Tests were done and MS was ruled out. Lamictal was redused some and no change so the Dr. said it was not the medication. These symtoms would subside for a few weeks to a few months and then come back. Her Neurologist was puzzled. He referred her to UC Davis in Sacramento. They hooked her up to a 24 hr. EEG and a video monitor for three days to check seizure activity. They redused her medication the first day from 400 mg.to 300 mg., the second day to 150 mg. and the third day 50mg. Instead of an increase on seizure activity the less medication the better she felt and the less wabbly she was. The Dr. came in the third day and said she had no seizure activity at all in three days. All of the seizure like symtoms she was having was caused by the Lamictal. He said one of the side effects from Lamictal can be seizure like symtoms. This Dr. was great. He knew the side effect from the medication used to treat problems in his field, why don't other Dr.'s know these things. He said it doesn't effect all patients that way, some tollerate it very well. The indication on the medication says if you suffer any unusual side effect contact your Dr. That's fine if they listen as this Dr. at UC Davis. But if they don't, seizure patient can suffer needlessly and be over medicated. I don't know if any of this helped. Sonia